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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Ty Cobb, Babies and Puppies; Oh My!: The Baseball Historian’s Notes for the Week of March 8, 2015

With other sports and interests vying for their attention,
it’s important to keep baseball alive with the younger generations. A great way
to achieve this is through school teams—right from elementary school through
college. Some programs have faded away over the years but in some rare
instances there has been a revival, including at New York University.

After a 41-year hiatus, the Violets once again are fielding
a baseball team. Never a true powerhouse, they did made the College World
Series in 1956 and 1969, and count Ralph Branca
as a successful alum. It goes to show that such programs don’t necessarily have
to be about being dynasties. Instead, making memories and building on an
historical legacy is more than enough.

*Baseball has lost another of its all-time greats with the death
of former outfielder Minnie
Minoso. The seven-time All Star was a native of Cuba, and played several
seasons in the Negro Leagues before becoming the majors’ first black player in
Chicago when he joined the White Sox in 1951. In 17 seasons (he also played for
the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Senators), he hit a
combined .298 with 186 home runs, 1,023 RBIs and 1,963 base hits. He is well
known for being the only player to ever play in six
different decades, with pinch-hitting opportunities in 1976 and 1980
helping him reach that milestone. He was 89.

*Former batting champion Alex Johnson
has passed
away at the age of 72. An outfielder, he played 13 seasons (1964-1976) for
eight teams, and led the American League in hitting at .329 for the 1970
California Angels. A career .288 hitter, once his playing days were over he
took over the trucking business founded by his father.

*Adding to the week’s melancholy roll call is Jeff
McKnight, who recently passed
away at the age of 52. A utility man who truly played all over the field,
he spent parts of six seasons (1989-1994) in the majors with the New York Mets
and Baltimore Orioles, hitting a combined .233 with five home runs in 218
games.

*The Michael Lewis book Moneyball
chronicles the strategy of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane in
identifying talent, maximizing player value and building a team—which veered considerably
from traditional standards. The 2002 Oakland draft class was featured prominently
in the book, as those players’ skills were valued specifically because of how
they fit the philosophy. Lewis’ wife Tabitha Soren photographically chronicled
these players, and have been updated in true “where are they now” style in this
terrific ESPN piece titled Faces of a Revolution.

*In the early 1980s there were few athletes as popular as
Los Angeles Dodgers’ left-handed pitcher Fernando
Valenzuela. With 99 wins by the time he was 25, and a distinct panache on
the mound, kids around the world would likely do whatever he told
them—including eating a well-balanced healthy breakfast. This Spanish-language commercial for
Cornflakes features the popular southpaw pitching cereal in his native language
for his many acolytes.

*Security is a point of major emphasis at major league
ballparks around the country. Unfortunately, society is in a place where
anything can happen at any time and precautions must be implemented to provide
the safest experience for everyone. This wasn’t always the case. As David
Pincus of Sports Illustratedwrites,
Bernard Doyle was accidentally shot to death at the Polo Grounds during a 1950
New York Giants game by a juvenile fan firing a handgun from a neighboring
rooftop. Not only did the game go on without interruption but fans actually
clamored to fill the dead man’s seat after his body was carried out of the
stadium.

*Joe Niekro
was one of the best knuckleball pitchers of all time, accumulating 221 wins
during a 22-year major league career. While he was a master of the fluttery pitch,
he may have also had some tricks up his sleeves or in his pockets. He was ejected from a 1987 game
against the California Angels after umpires found an emery board in his uniform
pants. Although he claimed innocence when it came to scuffing the ball, he was subsequently
hit with a 10-game suspension for the incident.

*Kevin
Mitchell will always be remembered most for his bat on the merits of 234
career home runs in 13 big league seasons. However, it’s tough to argue against
his greatest moment actually came in the field. In 1989, while playing for the
San Francisco Giants, he made an amazing bare-handed
catch to snare a slicing liner off the bat of the

Cardinals’
Ozzie Smith. I still remember seeing it on This
Week in Baseball. As Mel Allen would say, “How about that!

*Interleague play is a way of life in baseball these days.
However, it wasn’t always the case. Started in 1997, it has proven popular with
fans, as matchups are able to occur that would have previously been prevented
by league alignments. Although it is less than 20 years old, the idea had been
bandied about for quite a bit longer than that, as this 1960 newspaper
article shows.

*There’s a new documentary
film called Stealing Home out
there about the efforts of a small group of volunteers to reclaim the ground
where demolished Detroit Stadium used to stand.

*Hall of Fame outfielder Ty Cobb is
well known for his reputation of being a hard man. However, he also had a
softer side, as this photo of him posing with a young child and a red wagon
full of puppies will attest.